Retrievable earth anchor



June 21, 1960 w. J. CORDES RETRIEVABLE EARTH ANCHOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 30, 1956 uvmvron WILL/AM J C ORDES A T TORNEYS June 21, 1960 w. Ji CORDES 2,941,636

RETRIEVABLE EARTH ANCHOR v Filed Aug. so, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

A T TOiA/EYS WILL/AM CORDES United States This invention relates to earth anchors which are adapted to be buried in the ground and have guy wires secured thereto for the purpose of stably supporting an above ground structure, and the invention more particularly relates to an earth anchor which is retrievable without the necessity of digging it out of the ground.

The essential object of the invention is to provide a retrievable earth anchor compirsed of an anchor plate and an anchor rod having a double connection with the plate, with one of said points of attachment being subject to disconnection from above the ground to enable the plate to be pulled upwardly through the ground by means of the remaining connection between the anchor rod and the plate.

A further object of the invention is to provide, in the combination of an anchor plate and an anchor rod, lever means having a pivotal connection with the plate and a slidable connection with the rod, whereby the plate may be forced from an initial semivertical position within a ground hole to a horizontal, or anchoring, position.

The subject anchor may be considered to be an improvement over the retrievable earth anchor shown in my co-pending application, Serial Number 523,666, filed February 3, 1954. 7

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings forming part of this specification, and in which:

, Figure l is a view in perspective of the subject earth anchor showing the same in an anchoring position;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the anchor of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a detail view in section taken along lines 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a view in elevation showing the anchor as it is initially disposed within a ground hole;

Figure 5 is a view similar to that of Figure 4, but showing the anchor plate in a horizontal, or anchoring, position;

Figure 6 is another view in side elevation of the anchor in the ground, illustrating the manner in which the anchor may be retrieved from the ground;

Figure 7 is a view in perspective of the Working end of a tool that may be employed to drive the anchor from the position shown in Figure 4 to that shown in Figure 5;

Figure 8 is a view in elevation showing a modified form of the subject earth anchor initially positioned within a ground hole;

Figure 9 is a view in elevation showing the anchor of Figure 8 in anchoring position; and 1 Figure 10 is a view in elevation showing the manner in which the earth anchor may be retrieved from the ground.

With reference to Figures 1-3, the earth anchor is comprised of a plate 10 having an upstanding rib member 12, an anchor rod 14 havinga threadedlower end 16 removably disposed in threaded engagement with the internally threaded neck portion 18 of a clevis 20, a pin 22 extending through the clevis 20 and rib 12 and servatent ice ing to pivotally connect the clevis to the rib and means, such as cotter pins 24, adapted to retain pin 22 in place. A nut 26 is disposed on the threaded end 16 of rod 14 and is fixedly disposed thereon, as by welding, for a purpose hereinafter described.

A centrally apertured block 28 is slidably disposed on rod 14. The block is provided with a pair of oppositely directed pins 30. A double ended clevis, or lever arm, 32 has one end thereof pivotally connected to the block 28 by means of the pins 30 and the other end thereof pivotally connected to rib 12 by means of pin 34 which extends through the clevis and the rib. Means, such as cotter pins 36, are employed to maintain the pin 34 in place. The clevis 32 is desirably formed from two half sections which are secured together by rivets 38. The clevis half sections are attached to the pins 30 before the rivets 38 are put in place.

Figures 4-6 illustrate the manner of positioning the anchor within the ground and of retrieving it from the ground. With the plate 10 disposed substantially parallel to the rod 14 and with the lever 32 likewise disposed, the plate is inserted endwise into the ground hole 49, the latter being desirably cylindrical in form because of the relative ease of formation of this shape of ground hole. The anchor is then lowered to the bottom of the hole in the attitude shown in Figure 4.

Suitable means are employed to transmit hammer blows to the block 28 to force the block downwardly on rod 14 and thereby cause lever 32 to forcefully rotate plate 10 to cause the ends ofthe plate to gouge into the wall of the hole 40 and bring the plate to the horizontal, or anchoring, position shown in Figure 5. Such blow-transmitting means is shown in Figures 4 and 7, the same comprising an elongated rod member 42 having secured to the lower end thereof a collar 44, the latter having an inclined entrance slot 46 leading to the central aperture 48. The collar 44 is sleeved on the rod 14 by tilting the collar to bring the slot 46 into parallel with the rod, and moving the collar 44 laterally with respect to the rod to bring the rod within the central aperture 48. The collar 44 is then moved downwardly on rod 14 until it abuts the block 28. Hammer blows are then transmitted through the rod 42 and collar 44 to the block 28 to cause the plate to be moved to the Figure 5 position. The angular disposition of slot 46 prevents the collar 44 from accidentally slipping oil? the rod 14 during the driving operation. When the driving operation has been completed, the collar 44 is tilted by means of rod 42 to bring the slot 46 into parallel with the rod, thereby enabling the collar to be laterally moved free of the rod. The collar aperture 48 is made sufiiciently oversize with respect to red 14 to enable the necessary degree of tilting of the collar with respect to the rod to bring the slot 46 into parallel with the rod. The ground hole 40 is then back-filled, and a guy wire or cable is connected between the eye 50 of rod 14 and the structure to be supported.

If it is desired that the anchor be removed from the ground, this may be done without the necessity of removing the back-fill from the ground hole. The retrieval of the anchor is initiated by applying a Wrench, or the like, to the eye 50 of rod 14 and rotating the rod to disconnect the threaded end 16 thereof from the clevis 20. The rod 14 is then pulled upwardly to cause the lever 32 to tip the plate 10 upwardly to an endwise attitude, as indicated in dotted outline in Figure 6, for ready removal from the ground.

As best shown in Figure 2, the end 52 of plate 10 is wider than the end 54 of the plate. The provision of the relatively narrow end 54 makes it easier to tip the plate upwardly in the initial phase of the retrieval operation. This factor together with the positional location of the point of connection between the lever 32 and the plate makes it relatively easy to retrieve the plate from the ground. The point of connection between the lever 32 and plate is located appreciably closer to the side edge 56 of the plate than to the side edge 58, and it is located closely adjacent the narrow end edge 54' of the plate. Thus, the retrieving force applied to the plate through the rod 14 and lever 32 gives the plate a compound tip, i.e. so that the side edge 56 is disposed above side edge 58 and end edge 54 is disposed above end edge 52, thereby reducing the earth load factor which tends to prevent re-' bility inherent in the double clevis lever, enable this com-.

pound tilting of the plate to take place in the manner described.

The nut 26 which is fixedly secured to red '14 serves a plurality of functions. It prevents the block 28 from being pulled free of the rod 14 when the rod is removed from the clevis preliminary to retrieval of the anchor. The nut 26 also protects the threaded connection between the rod 14 and clevis 20, i.e. prevents the threads from becoming jammed under the action of driving the block 28 to its lowermost position on rod 14.

The point of connection between the rod 14 and plate '10 is disposed closer to the end 52 than to the end 54 of plate 10. This point of connection is disposed along the longitudinal centerline of the plate at a point where the total plate area between the point of connection and plate end 54 equalsthe total plate area between the point of connection and the plate end 52. The vertical force applied to rod 14 to the plate 10 by the structure being guyed does not, therefore, tend to tilt the plate within the ground.

Figures 8-10 show a modified form of the subject earth anchor. The plate 110 is provided with a rib 112 to which there is pivotally connected a clevis 114. The anchor rod 116 has its lower end removably threadably engaged with the clevis '114. A chain 118 extends from an eye 120 formed in lib 112 to a collar 122 which is slidably disposed on rod 116 and retained thereon by a nut 124 secured to the rod. The embodiment of Figures 8 -10 differs from the preferred embodiment of Figures 1-6 in that the lever member 32 of the latter is replaced with the chain 118.

As indicated in Figure 8, the plate 110 may be driven from its initial position within the ground hole to the anchoring position of Figure 9 by means of hammer blows transmitted through an elongated rod 128 to the upper end of the plate.

The plate 110 may be readily retrieved from the ground without removing the back-fill by rotating rod 116todisconnect it from clevis 114 and by then pulling upwardly on rod 116. In practice, these anchors are pulled'free by means of a Winch-pulled cable extending over the pulley end of a truck supported A-frame and into connected relation with the eye of the anchor rod.

While'specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that all substantial equivalents thereof are considered to be within the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A retrievable earth anchor comprising a plate'having a pair of side edges and a pair of end edges, an anchor rod having guy wire attachment means at its upper end, first connection means releasably connecting said rod to said plate at substantially the areal center thereof, said means enabling disconnection of said rod from said plate through axial rotative movement of the rod relative to the plate, means forming a second connection between said rod and said plate, said second connection means having a sliding connection with said rod and a pivotal connection with said plate located at a point closely adjacent one of the end edges of said plate, and stop means carried by said rod adjacent its lower end operable when said rod is; disconnected from said plate at said first connection means to prevent said second connection means from being disconnected from said rod, whereby subsequent upward movement of said rod will lift said plate endwise through said second connection means.

2. The retrievable earth anchor of claim 1, said point of connection between said plate and second connection means being located in closer proximity to one of said plate side edges than to the other.

3. The retrievable earth anchor of claim 1, said second connection means comprising a chain.

4. The retrie'vable earth anchor of claim 1, said second connection means comprising a rigid link member.

5. An earth anchor comprising a plate, an anchor rod having guy wire attachment means at its upper end and having its lower end pivotally connected to said plate at substantially the areal center thereof, a member sleeved on-said rod for sliding movement thereon, and a rigid link having one end pivotally connected to said member and the other end pivotally connected to said plate adjacent the periphery thereof, said plate being adapted -to be driven from a semi-vertically disposed position at the lower end of a ground .hole to a horizontal position through the medium of force applied to said member to move the same downwardly on said rod toward said plate.

6. A retrievable earth anchor comprising an elongated plate having a planform which is symmetrical with respectto its longitudinally disposed centerline, an upstanding rib formed on said plate and extending from end to end thereof, said rib intersecting said centerline at a point which coincideswith the areal center of said plate, a clevis pivotally connected to said ribat the point Where r said rib intersects said centerline, an anchor rod removably threadably engaged with the upper end of said clevis,

a sleeve member slidably disposed on said rod, said rod being rotatable with respect to said sleeve member so that 'said rod may be engaged with said clevis and disengaged therefrom, a stopmember for said sleeve member secured "to said rod below said sleeve member and closely adjacent the lower end of said rod, and a rigid link having one end thereof pivotally attached to said sleeve member and the other end pivotally attached to said rib closely adjacent an end of said plate, the pivotal axes between said clevis and rib, said link and sleeve member, and said link and rib being mutually parallel to eachlother. 7. Theretrievable earth anchor of claim 6, said plate having rounded end edges and straight side edges which are convergent with respect to each other to constitute one plate'end transversely narrower than the other plate end, said link being pivotally connected to said rib adjacent'said narrower end.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 809,374 Holden Jan. :9, 1906 836,678 Gallagher Nov. 27, 1906 855,298 Frost May 28, 1907 945,269 Fuchs Jan. 4, 1910 1,629,353 Michalicek May 17,1927 2,784,815 Larson Mar. 12, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 14,582 Norway Nov. 6, 1905 

